Exhibition Description

EDITION Feature
To Hold
Brian Kritzman and Kim Cridler
January 13 – February 24, 2018

View images in this exhibition

“A basic human instinct to hold is to transform the unknown into a known world – to shift wild to tame. The simple action of grasping brings one towards knowing, while sensing the inexplicable in what is held. To Hold, unifies the inspirational basis of the individual practices both of Kim Cridler and Brian Kritzman. It celebrates the action of holding, its subtleties, and implications.”

Brian Kritzman
Detroit born designer Brian Kritzman received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Working for a variety of exhibition design firms, he has designed automotive exhibition properties for North American, European and Asian venues. Currently, he is professor and program head of Industrial Design at Wayne State University. He has lectured on his work throughout North America, China, and Europe. Originally trained as an automotive wood model maker, his contemporary practice embraces traditional material technique and exploration. Kritzman’s work includes limited production objects that investigate identity and impermanence.

Kim Cridler
“My work, based on familiar forms like trees and vessels, argues for the pleasure found in beauty, and the power of material and form. Using a process that is accumulative and direct, joining small parts together into a larger body, I work to create a sense of movement within still objects. Within this structured movement there resides the potential for change. These works serve as a reminder of our own place in the natural world; no matter how carefully we construct and manage our daily experiences, life will not leave us alone or untouched by change.”

Trained as a metalsmith, Kim was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan, earned an MFA in Metals from the State University of New York at New Paltz, and studied at Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting.

Kim has taught in art programs across the country including the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Michigan, San Diego State University, Arizona State University, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts and the Penland School of Crafts. Her work can be found in the public collections including the Arkansas Art Center Decorative Museum of Art, the Chazen Art Museum, the Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture, the collection of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, NYC, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Racine Art Museum, the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, the Scottsdale Contemporary Museum of Art, and the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. She has also applied her use of steel, structure and ornament in large-scale public art projects and commissions for public spaces. She recently installed a public art project at the Mamaroneck, NY Metro North Station for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts-For-Transit program and will have a retrospective of her work in 2020 at the Metal Museum in Memphis, TN.